by Lionel Law
Renee listened carefully, then interrupted. “Hold on. I’m going to put you on speaker phone.”
Holding the phone out, she pressed a button. “Go ahead, The Horseman is with me.”
“The gunmen are demanding a helicopter with enough fuel to get them to Mexico,” Maria’s voice came cracklingly over the speaker. “They say if they do that, they’ll free all but three of the hostages, with the other three to be freed once they are in Mexico.”
“There’s no way in hell those hostages will be allowed to live,” Grady said. “What sort of layout do the cops think the gunmen are in? Where are they in the building?”
“The police think that they have two classrooms, at opposite ends of the building in order to prevent the SWAT from taking the building. They’ve got three hundred and sixty degree views of the whole area.”
Grady looked at Renee and held up two fingers, then pointed them back and forth between them. “Two of them, two of us?” he whispered.
Renee thought it over and nodded. “Deal.” She raised her voice and spoke loud enough for the phone to pick her voice up again. “Any ideas on what they are armed with?”
“Police aren’t too sure, but reports from witnesses of the gunmen’s initial attack said they had at least some shotguns, and two of them were carrying what might be AK’s. Also, Horseman?”
“Yeah?”
“This isn’t confirmed, but some of the word on the streets is that the local bad guys suspect you’re not totally bulletproof. The cops are picking up a lot more gang bangers carrying armor piercing rounds and larger calibers. I’d assume the gunmen have something like that too.”
“Understood. Thank you, Miss Mendoza.”
“Hey, if you two get out of this, think I can get an interview?” Maria asked suddenly, then sighed. “Probably not, but it’s my job.”
“We’ll see,” Renee replied. She closed the phone call program, then looked at Grady. “What? If you want this little adventure of ours to continue, we’ll probably need to cultivate some information contacts.”
“Yeah, but an ex-girlfriend of mine? Can’t we find some regular reporter instead?” Grady said, then laughed. “Just my damn luck.”
Renee shrugged. “Just think, it could be worse. You know with the way we came in that some perv got an upskirt shot on me. My ass is probably going to be all over TMZ tomorrow.”
“That could be a tactic,” Grady said, smiling. “Have you jump down and distract the gunmen with your body, and when they’re all looking at your butt I’ll come up behind them and knock them out.”
Renee laughed and kissed him. “Only person who gets to see my naked butt is you. Now, which wing of the building do you want?”
Grady looked. The school was built in an old fashioned design that looked a lot like a lower case t, with a central main building that was used for the office, with the classrooms coming out in two wings. Grady nodded towards the westward one. “I’ll go west. It’s closest to the road, and if I were the gunmen I’d put more of my men there. Remember, I’m still stronger than you.”
“Be careful,” she said, looking towards the east wing. She was glad the roof was typically Californian flat, they would be able to see each other before dropping in. “Let’s go.”
Renee made her way quietly to the far end of the east wing of the building, listening for noise coming from inside the building. At the very end, she heard children crying underneath her. The harsh voices of the gunmen overwhelmed them. “Lady, get those kids to shut the fuck up or else someone’s getting a rifle butt in the head!”
“Do you think it was really The Horseman?” another voice cut in, as the screaming child’s voice was muffled. Renee suspected either the teacher or classmates were covering the child’s mouth up, but she couldn’t tell.
“Who knows? Could have been him, could have been a big fucking bird. Considering that Jaime said he saw two people, I think he’s a bit too hopped up for this right now.”
“Regardless,” a third voice said, calm and controlled, “if it was The Horseman, then we’re ready for him. Even The Horseman can’t take a ten gauge deer slug in the chest without going down.”
“Still…” the first voice said, and Renee could hear a quaver in his voice. Whoever it was, they were scared, and most likely trigger happy. It was a problem. The third voice was most likely the most dangerous, she thought. But the first voice was the one that was the most dangerous to the children, because he’d be the most likely to spray the room in a panicked burst of gunfire.
She knew she had to act, and soon. She used her ears to get the best guess she could for each group in the room. The children, she thought, were closest to the windows, probably being used as human shields. Two of the gunmen were on her right, facing the south side and looking out at the wide playground. The other gunman, the calm one that worried her the most, was on the north side, where he could monitor the police and news media best. She made her decision, and headed to the south side of the building. Looking back to where Grady was standing over the other classroom, she waved her arms. He waved back. He was in position.
“Let’s hope I get through this alive,” Renee whispered. Grabbing the lip of rain gutter at the edge of the roof, she took a deep breath. She looked over at Grady and nodded, hoping he could see her. Kicking with her legs, she swung out and off of the roof.
While in the air, Renee was reminded of when she had been in elementary school, and she, along with a few of her friends, had played on the monkey bars. They’d spent recess period after recess period skinning the cat, flipping around, and doing a bunch of other bar tricks they probably shouldn’t have, considering the bars were built over blacktop. The gunner groaned but held, redirecting her body’s momentum around and down.
She had a moment to see that her ears had steered her pretty well. The two gunmen were about five feet apart in separate windows, one of them turned three quarters away while the other looked at her with widening eyes. He started to yell and pull his shotgun up to his shoulder when she crashed boots first through the window.
She was grateful then, more than any other time, for the special boots Grady had gotten for her. When she started shooting up in height, he had gotten her what looked like platform boots. However, instead of having her feet resting on top of large amounts of platform, her feet were actually underneath the gel padding, with only a normal flat boot heel under her foot. Still, there was close to an inch of vulcanized rubber protecting her feet as she went through the glass, her feet catching the gunman in his chest and face. The gunman’s nose crunched, and he flew backwards to land in a broken heap in the center of the floor.
Rolling off of the impact and to her feet, Renee launched herself anew at the second gunman, who was spinning towards her. Pushing the button on the device on her right fist, she cocked her head back and punched, catching him in the sternum. The force ripped through the man, his chest deflating weirdly as the force crushed his ribs flat against his backbone, while his stomach and arms seemingly swelled like inflated balloons before the shockwave knocked him backwards, and he collapsed against the wall.
Renee spun on her knee towards the last gunman, freezing when she saw the man reach down and grab a young girl under her chin, yanking her up and holding his pistol against her head. “So, The Horseman does have a helper. Wonder what you should be called?”
“Doesn’t matter to me,” Renee replied. “But put the kid down.”
The gunman shook his head, and pointed with his head towards the other side of the school. “Maybe you’ve been distracted by taking out those two, but The Horseman is raising hell on the other side of the school too. I drop this kid, and I’m a dead man. The media might call him a superhero, but he’s no comic code following Superman.”
Renee nodded then shrugged. She stood and backed up, keeping her hands open. She saw the chalkboard on the wall, and backed away. “You’re right. And since I just took out your two partners, you know I’m not the Girl Scout type eith
er.”
A loud boom came from the other end of the school, and both of them glanced over. “Sounds like The Horseman’s having problems too,” the hostage taker said. “Too bad for you.”
Renee’s mind whirled with possibilities. She wanted to run to Grady, but knew she couldn’t. Taking a deep breath to calm her nerves, she stepped back, her hips bumping against the chalkboard. “You never know,” she replied. “Listen, I just want the children to be safe. Maybe swap me for them?”
“Yeah right,” the gunman replied. He kept his pistol pointed at the child’s head, but his eyes roamed her body. “Not saying I wouldn’t mind spending a little time alone with a hottie like you, but I’m not suicidal.”
“Why not? You know what they say, once you go black…..” Renee said, putting on her most seductive smile. At the same time she reached higher, thrusting her breasts out. She felt sleazy, but if it distracted the man, she would be willing to do it. “You ever had a black girl, big boy?”
“Not yet,” the gunman replied, his eyes focusing on the swells of her body. “When I get to Mexico, maybe I’ll find out.”
The gunman’s hand wavered in his distraction, and she took advantage. She had been trying to distract the gunman for two reasons. First, to get his pistol away from the child. Second, she saw on the ledge at the top of the chalkboard a thick metal ruler that she suspected the teacher used for drawing lines on the board. Snatching it up, she whisked it as hard as she could at his head, praying her aim was good.
As her arm flashed through the air, time seemed to slow down for her. Every movement of the entire room crept to almost a standstill. She could feel the ruler in her hand, and she knew it was on a straight path as soon as it left her hand. It turned over once before striking the gunman between the eyes, shattering his nose and causing an explosion of blood from between his eyes. Staggering back, his gun dropped to the ground, going off and putting a round through a window. Renee followed the ruler with her left hand, closing the distance and slamming her palm against his cheek in a tremendous open handed slap. The gunmen flew off his feet, crashing into a desk before sagging to the floor, unconscious.
Renee looked for the teacher, who was still huddled with the child the first gunman had ordered to be silenced. She knelt down and picked up the pistol the last gunman had dropped, and handed it to the teacher. “He moves, you shoot him,” she said.
The teacher nodded, and cleared her throat. “Thank you.”
Renee shook her head, and grabbed a shotgun one the first two men had dropped. It was already armed, she hoped as she ran as hard as she could towards the other classroom. Ten seconds had passed since the last booming shot from the room Grady had gone into. Charging into the room, she saw a gunman standing over Grady, who was holding his thigh and was lying on the ground. The gunman had a rifle that looked huge to Renee, and she didn’t even slow down. Dropping the shotgun and lowering her shoulder, she tackled the gunman, spearing him like a linebacker. The two went flying through the air, crashing through the window and out into the front walk of the school. Rolling, Renee scrambled on top of the gunman and punched him once, knocking him out. The media and police in view all stopped and froze as she got to her knees, looked at them, and went back inside.
The room was in chaos. The teacher held his hand over Grady’s thigh, which was pumping blood onto the ground. “He was hit by a fourth gunman,” the teacher explained, “one who had stepped out to use the bathroom. Lady… is he The Horseman?”
“Yeah,” Renee said, taking Grady’s hand. “You okay, baby?”
Grady’s voice was soft and weak. “Need…. lab….. nanos.”
Renee nodded. “I’ll get you there.”
Behind her, she heard someone run up. “Everyone down! SDPD!”
Renee picked Grady up in her arms and turned, looking at the three SWAT officers who were standing at the glass door, each of them holding MP5 submachine guns. She stared at them, Grady’s blood dripping off his hip and onto the floor. “If I don’t take him now, he’ll be dead.”
The SWAT officers looked at each other, and one of them nodded. “Understood.” He turned his head and yelled behind him. “Fall back! Make a hole! Casualty!”
Renee paused by the commander, looking over at him. “Thank you.”
The SWAT cop shook his head. “No. You’re one of the good guys, after all.”
Renee didn’t even reply, taking off running as fast as she could. She knew the shortest path to Grady’s lab, and sprinted as hard as she could to the 805 freeway, staying on the breakdown lane. Slinging him over her shoulder to allow her to pump her right arm as she ran gave her a bit more control as she passed every vehicle faster than almost any of the drivers could see her. Even as her feet began to heat up and her shoes started to melt, she pushed herself faster, until the entire world was a blur in her vision except for directly ahead of her. Ignoring the pain, she took the off-ramp to Del Mar, and followed the city streets until she was close to the ocean cliffs. When she saw the tall white Voelker Consolidated building, she left the streets and took off over the two miles of sand, dirt and mixed turf. When she was close she took a deep breath and leapt. Flying through the air, she aimed at the side windows on the second floor that faced the ocean. Throwing her free arm over her face, they crashed through, taking out one of the large window panes.
On the second floor, she staggered to the stairwell, jumping upwards to the third and then fourth floor. Carrying him to the lab table, she set him down carefully and went to the cabinet, pulling out a vial of nanos. Looking around, she saw the hypospray, and slapped the vial into the dispenser. “Wait,” she said, looking at Grady’s leg. If he’d been shot, she’d have to get the bullet out. “Grady? Grady!”
She shook his shoulder, and Grady’s eyes fluttered open. “Wha?”
“I need to get the bullet out,” she said, looking into his eyes. “Where do you have pliers or something like that?”
“Forceps….. far left cabinet…..” Grady replied, slipping into unconsciousness again. Renee ripped the doors off the cabinet she pulled so hard, looking inside. The forceps were in a small medical kit, and she snatched them up. Yanking the gauntlet off her left hand with her teeth, she eased the wound apart, worried as the flow of blood actually slowed. Grady was bleeding out, and she didn’t have much time. Silently requesting forgiveness, she dug around in the wound, searching for something hard and solid, praying it was the bullet.
She was just beginning to lose hope when the forceps found the bullet, and she pulled it out. Setting it on the table, she immediately grabbed the hypospray of nanos and injected it into his thigh, hoping they would work quickly. She watched in wonder as the edges of his wound started to take on a silvery shimmer, the nanos quickly replicating themselves and going to work. In less than ten seconds, his skin was knitted. In thirty seconds, the skin was unmarked, without even a hint of a scar. Grady’s eyes fluttered open, and he looked up at her. “You found the bullet?”
“Yep. You feeling better?” Now that his eyes were open, her fear evaporated like mist in the morning sun.
“Of course. What’s the damage?”
“Well, I approached from the beach side going cross country, so I doubt anyone knew exactly which building I ran to. On the other hand, we crashed through one of the plate glass windows on the second floor, so you might want to call the accountants downstairs and tell them everything is okay. I’m sure you’ll come up with a good excuse.”
“I will,” Grady said, sitting up. “But first, your turn. Take a look at your feet.”
Renee did, and was shocked at what she saw. Blood and ragged hunks of tissue hung from her skin, and she thought she could see the bright whiteness of bone on a little toe. “Wha….?”
“The nanos. They can cut in and dull the pain if your brain demands it. You’ve got about two minutes before they stop, and your feet scream at you. Now, up on the table, and we get you injected. Then you take a nap, and I’ll take care of the bookkeeper
s downstairs.”
Chapter 9
Renee woke up to the sound of waves crashing in the distance, and a cool breeze playing over her skin. Opening her eyes, she saw that she was in Grady’s Imperial Beach house, and that she was currently wearing just her panties and a light tank top. She sighed contentedly, before the darkness outside struck her. It was after sunset, which meant it had to be at least seven or eight at night. “My gig!”
She sat up with a start and jumped out of bed. Dashing towards the front door, she was met in the living room by Grady, who grabbed her and swung her around. “Whoa, hold on there Dark Justice, just where are you going?”
“I’m late for work, Grady!” she said, breaking free before stopping and turning. “And what’s with the Dark Justice bit?”
“Come here, take a look,” he said, taking her gently by the arm and leading her into the living room. On the screen, video of her spearing the last bad guy through the window and onto the grass played again. Underneath, the headline read Second Horseman appears: Is Dark Justice working with San Diego’s own Horseman?
“They seem to like the Biblical themes, don’t they?” Grady said, leading her over to the sofa. “I gotta give Maria Mendoza credit, she gave you the moniker first. She quoted the Bible the first time she revealed it, I looked, and behold, a black horse; and he who sat on it had a pair of scales in his hand. A bit overly dramatic in my opinion, but the other networks ran with it, and by the time the sun set you were named.”
Renee watched the silenced video for a bit, then shook her head. “Dark Justice may be one thing, but Litezout has a gig in the University district starting at nine. What time is it?”
“It’s ten twenty, and no, Litezout doesn’t,” Grady replied gently. “I called the club from my lab after the nanos put you under. I spoke with the manager, and said that you had a car accident, and that you wouldn’t be able to make it. The guy was miffed until I told him who I was, and that I’d be happy to not only compensate him for his troubles, but pay for a replacement to come in and cover. In the end he seemed happy enough.”